Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: Matthew Dominick/NASA

There continues to be guesswork regarding resources available on the moon.

Clearly, a leading hot topic is whether or not super-chilly water ice at the lunar south pole is truly ripe for the picking and processing into oxygen, hydrogen and other essentials needed for life support, even rocket fuel.

Indeed, exploitable water ice is on NASA’s Artemis agenda, a prospect viewed as enabling a “sustainable” human presence on that bleak and cratered world.

Artemis explorers at the Moon.
Image credit: NASA

Lunar water ice is thought resident within “cold traps,” permanently-shadowed regions, or PSRs. That elixir for life, along with a bountiful wellspring of other moon resources, could help shore up a self-sustaining space economy.

But keep that thought. There’s need for first things first.

For details, go to my new Space.com story – “Should we regulate the moon? Scientists call for international plan to share lunar water and resources” – at:

https://www.space.com/moon-lunar-resources-international-cooperation